Philly's Museum Of The American Revolution Taking Shape, Sets Open Date
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Museum of the American Revolution in Old City has been under construction for two years, but progress is being made.
Now, an opening date has been set for spring of next year.
The museum at 3rd and Chestnut Streets is 118, 000 total square feet, filled with with things like a lobby, grand staircase, exhibit galleries and event space with a view.
One of the main exhibits will be a theater style venue housing (behind glass) the very tent that George Washington stayed in during the Revolutionary War. It comes with some special bells and whistles to keep the treasure safe and sound.
This will be one of the first museums with a fire suppression system that involves a vortex.
"It uses just a small amount of water and a kind of forced air to create essentially a fog," explains Dr. R. Scott Stephenson -- VP of collections, exhibitions & programming at the museum. "And we saw a test of this system and it was just amazing and basically with the equivalent of a gallon of water you put out a fire in a room it gives us a lot more confidence that this is an object that is going to survive for future generations."
On April 19th, 1775 a shot rang out across the north bridge in Concord Massachusetts igniting the Revolutionary War. The museum opens on the anniversary -- April 19th.